Structural Transformation of African Agriculture & Rural Spaces (STAARS) Fellowship Program 2024 | APPLY NOW

This informs the public about the Structural Transformation of African Agriculture & Rural Spaces (STAARS) Fellowship Program 2024. Details about the Program are given below.

STAARS Fellowship Program 2024

About STAARS Fellowship Program 2024

The Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces (STAARS) fellowship program, a multi-institution collaboration managed by Cornell University in collaboration with the World Bank’s Development Research Group and the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP), announces its annual call for research proposals.

Early-career researchers selected as STAARS Fellows in 2024 advance rigorous, policy-oriented research on the causal determinants of productivity and income growth, asset accumulation, rural employment and risk management in African agriculture and rural spaces.

Program Details

The Fellowship covers travel and training expenses. STAARS Fellows will be paired with faculty, senior research staff, or affiliated researcher mentors from Cornell University, the World Bank, or PEP, with whom they will jointly author a paper on a topic of mutual interest relating to structural transformation in Africa south of the Sahara.

The program aims to publish resulting research findings in high-quality, peer-reviewed journals and as working papers. In addition, the World Bank, PEP, and Cornell will facilitate Fellows’ participation in scientific and policy conferences, provide professional development training, and build Fellows’s international research networks.

Funding

The selected applicants will receive funds to cover travel and participation in a three-week mentorship program at Cornell University or the World Bank (based on mentorship). The remainder of the research coordination and professional development training will be conducted virtually.

Fellows must commit significant time to the proposed research and capacity development activities. A modest honorarium will be provided to each Fellow. No salary support is available; STAARS will not cover the scholar’s time allocated to this research.

A letter of support from the candidate’s current advisor/supervisor/or manager is required, explicitly indicating that adequate work time will be available for full participation in the program if selected. The program cannot support costs for any new data collection.

Eligibility

The call is open to early career researchers, either PhD students in their final year before degree completion or preferably those who completed their PhD no earlier than 2018. Priority is given to researchers who have earned at least one degree from an African university, plan to work professionally in low- and lower-middle-income countries, and have proposals relating to the above research themes. Qualified female researchers are particularly encouraged to apply. STAARS welcomes applications from fresh Ph.D. graduates who can benefit from mentorship and additional training to become internationally respected and recognized researchers. Fellows are expected to complete the proposed project by submitting findings as a draft working paper by December 13, 2024, and proceeding to submit the paper to a peer-reviewed journal and conferences by June 30, 2025.

Researchers are expected to be familiar with and have demonstrated access to existing data sets, have a solid working knowledge of appropriate software, typically Stata and R, and have an interest in econometric analysis of high-quality data sets. Knowledge of geo-referenced data and GIS software to manage them is an asset. Knowledge of Stata and R will be assessed at the final stage.

STAARS Fellowship Program 2024 Application

For those interested in the STAARS Fellowship Program 2024. Open this link to start the application process.

Application Deadline

  • The deadline for receipt of applications is 19 January 2023.

Open this link for more details about STAARS Fellowship Program 2024.

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